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New hi-tech machines coming soon to Dales car parks

24 August 2015

Residents and visitors to the Derbyshire Dales will notice new hi-tech pay and display parking machines springing up in car parks across the district in the coming weeks and months.

But the message to users is that nothing changes in the short term - the new machines will be taking cash only until a new card payment function has been tested to ensure all transactions are secure. This will happen towards the end of this year and a next step - enabling payments via mobile phone - will follow in April 2016.

The good news is that Derbyshire Dales people can continue to use their residents' parking permit to park free in any District Council car park before 11am and after 4pm every day of the week.

The type of new pay and display machine being introduced is the one favoured by users in a trial at the District Council's Ashbourne Shawcroft car park, where it was set up alongside a similar hi-tech machine.

Disruption will be kept to a minimum as the new machines are installed at selected car parks from Matlock next week, in Bakewell at the start of September and then Ashbourne. Pay and display charges will continue during the installation process at each car park, with temporary payment machines available.

A District Council spokesperson said:

"One of the big ideas that came out of a year-long review of our car parking policies was that the pay and display machines in our car parks should be able to receive card payments as well as cash. This is our response to that feedback and while we are concentrating initially on our bigger town centre car parks, the aim is to have new machines installed in all of our 40 car parks across the Derbyshire Dales before the end March next year."